Lesson video

Hi there, my name's Mr. Trantropala and I'm really looking forward to starting this lesson with you today.

Today we are going to be stepping into the unknown for a new extract, and we're gonna have the opportunity to read through a children's classic.

We're gonna be looking at Alice in Wonderland, which is a really great text and is a really wonderful way of looking at the sort of title of this unit as Alice, just like us, is stepping into the unknown, into a world where she hasn't been before.

So as ever, let's start off by discussing our outcome.

By the end of today's lesson, you are going to have read an unseen extract and you are going to have selected evidence to support your understanding of your reading of the text.

The key words for today's lesson are, extract, which is a noun, which is just a short passage from a text.

We're gonna be having a look at a key character, which is a person in a novel, play, or film.

We're gonna be considering the tone of the extract.

And when we're talking about tone, we're talking about the general mood or feeling of a text.

And finally we'll be thinking about contrast, which is when we compare two people or things in order to show the differences between them.

So let's start off today's lesson by reading our extract.

In this lesson we're going to be reading an extract from Lewis Carroll's, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".

What do we already know about the story? I mentioned a little bit about it right at the top of the lesson.

Pause the video now and see if you can make any predictions or can you remember anything? Maybe it's a story you have heard of before.

What do you already know about the story? You may want to take notes independently on a notepad or you may want to discuss with someone in your class.

Pause the video, have that discussion.

Lovely ideas.

Really glad to see so many of you thinking back to that title, "Stepping into the unknown".

Sam, one of our Oak students said that he knows there's a grinning cat, which is a really good way of referring to the Cheshire cat.

And Jacob pointed out, "I remember there's a queen of hearts who tries to behead everyone!".

Very memorable moment to be remembering.

I wanna create a mind map of what we already know about Alice's adventures in Wonderland.

What characters there are, what happens in the story.

Pause the video, see if you can add anything.

We've already gone through two, you may be able to guess a third, bearing in mind the title.

You may know a couple of others.

Pause the video, create that mind map in your notes.

Fantastic, let's see if we can add anything.

So we know there's Alice who follows a white rabbit down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, and we know in Wonderland she meets characters such as the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire cat.

Alice also meets the previously named Queen of Hearts who tries to have Alice beheaded, but Alice then realises it's all a dream.

Add any of those to your notes, pausing the video before you move on.

So we're going to start reading the extract from the beginning of the story.

You'll find an extract in the additional materials for today's lesson.

We're gonna use our first read through to establish information about the plot and the key characters of the text.

In this extract, Alice, who was feeling bored on a hot summer's day, has just followed a rabbit down a rabbit hole into a mysterious hallway full of doors.

As we're reading, you may want to follow along using your copy of the extract from additional materials.

You may want to do that with a pencil in your hand so you're just annotating, just maybe circling when key characters are introduced or any words that you're unfamiliar with you may just want to underline and come back and check them.

We'll start reading now.

"There were doors all around the hall, but they were all locked.

And when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle wondering how she was ever to get out again.

Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass.

There was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice's first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall, but alas, either the locks were too large or the key was too small.

But at any rate, it would not open any of them.

However, on the second time around she came upon a low curtain she had noticed before, and behind it was a small little door, about 15 inches high.

She tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight, it fitted!" So let's pause here and just discuss where Alice is and what she has found.

Pause the video and see if you can go back to your text and find any of those key pieces of information.

Some fantastic work, really loved how you were going back and just checking with your pencils just to make sure that we can work out where Alice is.

Let's see what Lucas had to say.

Lucas said that Alice is in the hallway with lots of doors and she's just found a tiny key that will open a tiny door.

Lucas is absolutely correct.

Let's keep reading the story.

"Alice opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat hole.

She knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.

How she longed to get out of that dark hall and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the doorway.

"And even if my head would go through" Thought poor Alice, "It would be a very little use without my shoulders.

Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope.

I think I could if only I knew how to begin" For you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible." So let's recap.

Where is Alice trying to get to? pause the video, try and work it out.

So pleased to see so many of you going back to your text.

Let's have a look, shall we? Alex points out, "She's trying to get to the lovely looking garden that she can see through that tiny door." If you've got that, well done.

If you didn't, maybe just make a note of it.

We'll keep reading.

"There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so she went back to the table half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes.

This time she found a little bottle on it, "Which certainly was not here before" Said Alice, and tied around the neck of the bottle with a was a paper label with the words, "DRINK ME" Beautifully printed on it in large letters." Really interesting to see that suddenly in this magical world things suddenly are on table, suddenly they're not.

Wonder what's gonna happen next.

What has Alice just found though? Pause the video, see if you can work it out.

Go back to a text to help you.

Well done to those of you who pointed out she had found a label that had, that asks her to drink it.

Really demanding label to me.

"It was all very well to say, "Drink me" But the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry.

"No, I'll look first" She said, "And see whether it's marked poison or not" For she had read several nice little stories about children who had got burnt and eaten up by wild beasts and other unpleasant things all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds, and she had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked, "Poison" It is most certain to disagree with you sooner or later." So, why is it important for Alice to check whether the bottle is marked, "Poison" Or not? Pause through yourselves, check back through that part of the text that we've just read and restart the video when you're ready.

Really good work guys.

Laura's been able to help us out a little bit here too.

She remembers that bottles marked with poison are not very good for you and that you should always follow advice like this.

Laura's absolutely right, Alice has learnt that from reading stories and she's kept that knowledge with her.

Maybe you'll do the same.

"However, this bottle was not marked, "Poison" So Alice ventured to taste it and finding it very nice.

It had in fact a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast.

She very soon finished it off.

"What a curious feelings" Said Alice, "I must be shutting up like a telescope." Is Alice's transformation pleasant? Pause the video and discuss that amongst yourselves or maybe go back to her text and try to work it out.

Really good work, well done to those of you who had a look.

She describes the taste of the liquid as pleasant.

That's why it's got all of those delicious flavours.

I personally would really enjoy the toffee, and the actual transformation though is curious.

So we probably assume that the transformation was positive rather than negative.

And so indeed, "It was indeed: she was now only 10 inches high" So she shut up like a telescope, "And her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden.

First however, she waited a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further.

She felt a tiny, a little nervous about this, "For it my end, you know" Said Alice to herself, "Am I going out altogether, like a candle? I wonder what I should be like then?" And she tried to fancy what the flame of the candle looks like after the candle is blown out for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.

So what is Alice worrying about here? Pause the video, go back through the text, see if you can work out.

Well done, I'm so pleased to see so many of you have gone for that idea that she's worried about disappearing altogether.

She's worried about shrinking so much that she doesn't exist anymore.

"After a while finding out that nothing more happened, she decided on going into the garden at once, but alas, for poor Alice! When she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for it, she found she could not possibly reach it.

She could see it quite plainly through the glass and she tried her best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery, and when she had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried." Oh, this sounds miserable for Alice, doesn't it? What did you think of the extract? Did you like it? Maybe you agree with the oak pupils.

Aisha says she really liked the way Alice sounded so sensible even though she was in the fantasy world.

Whilst Izzy liked it because it made her imagine what she would do if she was in Alice's situation.

Pause the video.

What did you enjoy about the extract? I think I heard a couple of you go for that image of the candle towards the end and her disappearing altogether and her trying to imagine what a candle looks like.

It's such a fun text in that way and Carroll is really trying to challenge us with some of the images that he produces.

So let's just check our understanding of the text.

I want you to select which two of the following statements are true.

So, is it option A, Alice wanted to go through the tiny door to get to the garden? Option B, Alice wanted to go through the tiny door to go home? Option C, Alice found a bottle that said, "Drink me"? Or option D, Alice found a cake that said, "Eat me"? Work out which two are true whilst you pause the video.

Unpause it when you're ready.

Well done for going back to check the text.

It's always tricky when we're looking at new ones.

We know that Alice wants to go through the tiny door to get to the garden, and we also know that she found a bottle that said, "Drink me".

Remember, she's worried it's poisonous and then she tastes it and it's cherry-tart and pineapple and toffee and hot butter toast.

What a strange flavour.

When reading a text for the first time, we need to think about the tone.

To think about tone, answer the following two questions and use quotations from the text as evidence to support your answers.

So this is your opportunity to practise using your knowledge of the text you've read so far.

Your first question is, "How is Alice feeling at the very start of the text?" So you want to go back, you're going to want to go back right to the start of the text to work that out.

Your second question is, "How does Alice feel at the end of the extract?" So we're really thinking here about how she changes over the course.

Pause the video and put your work into practise.

Loved seeing so many of you draw that comparison between the start and the end of the extract.

Let's review our answers.

You might have said, "At the beginning of the extract, Alice is feeling worried about being in the hall and not knowing how to get out.

When Carroll describes her as walking sadly down the middle, the reader would assume that she's unhappy with her current situation.

The tone is therefore one of worry and sadness." I really like this answer because it clearly situates us at the start of the text, uses a key quote to answer the question and then also really focuses on the language.

Let's have a look at the second answer, shall we? "The final word of the extract is, "Cried".

Lovely specific detail there.

"Therefore we can see that Alice is still feeling unhappy and frustrated at her situation at the end of the extract." If you didn't get those answers, that's absolutely fine.

Maybe you've got something different.

What you may want to do though is pause the video and add any ideas that you really like to your answers now.

Some superb work there everyone.

Let's continue.

So we've already read the extract and we're now gonna develop our understanding of the extract.

In order to try to understand an extract, we need to think about the writer using language to create an effect on the reader.

Once you've read through an extract once, you should then return to the extract to examine certain words or phrases in more detail to consider why the writer is using them.

In order to create an effect on the reader, the writer might use certain techniques.

For example, a writer might use contrast to highlight the difference between two things, or emotive language to make the reader feel a certain way towards a character.

We're gonna just check our understanding here, using our knowledge from those last two slides.

Complete the following sentences.

A writer might use something to highlight the difference between two things, whilst emotive of language can be used to make the reader feel what way towards? Let's check our understanding of those last two slides.

Complete the following sentences.

A writer might use what to highlight the difference between two things? An emotive language can be used to make the reader what a certain way towards a character? Pause the video and see if you can complete those two sentences.

Fantastic work, let's review our answers there.

You might have said that a writer uses contrast to highlight the difference between two things, and emotive language can be used to make the reader feel a certain way towards a character.

Great work everyone, let's continue.

So we're gonna practise our understanding of the text by answering the following questions.

We're gonna think about what does Alice mean by wishing she could shut up like a telescope? What is the effect of contrasting the loveliest garden and the dark hall? And who is the poor little thing described at the end of the text? How is the reader made to feel? To help you, it may be helpful to go back to the text just to double check your answers.

Pause the video now and answer those questions.

Well done, I really like the way that people were getting into the contrast between the loveliest garden and the dark hall.

Let's review those, shall we? You might have said, "The image of Alice shutting up like a telescope suggests that she wants to be able to fold herself away to make herself smaller." That's a really good piece of understanding for that simile.

For the second question, you may have said that the contrast emphasises just how much Alice desires to be in the garden as it creates a really positive association with the garden, whereas it suggests that the hall is somewhat negative that Alice doesn't want to be.

Really good answers for those two.

For the third one, you might have said, who is this poor little thing? "The poor little thing at the end of the text is Alice, and Carroll has used emotive of language here to make the reader feel sympathy for her." And we certainly do.

Alice seems in a hopeless situation by this point in the text.

Let's just summarise our key learning on how to respond to an unseen extract.

First of all, we use the first reading of an unseen extract to establish key information about plot, character and setting.

Afterwards we read the text more closely to consider the meaning of specific words and phrases.

Finally, we know now that writers use specific words and phrases to create specific effects on the reader.

Some excellent work in today's lesson, everyone, and I've really enjoyed going through this with you.

I hope you have a wonderful day and I look forward to working with you again soon.

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